The Council of Grand Justices’ landmark ruling in May that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional demonstrates Taiwan’s increasingly progressive stance towards LGBTQ rights and anticipates Spectrosynthesis — Asian LGBT Issues and Art Now, an exhibition currently on view at Taipei’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA, Taipei).
The exhibition, which runs until Nov. 5 and features 51 works by 22 artists from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US and Canada, displays paintings, installations, videos and sound recordings about the history and life stories of LGBTQ people in the “greater Chinese community.”
Photo courtesy of MOCA, Taipei
PHALLIC ART
The male member is possibly the most privately cherished and publicly reviled body part. And yet it would seem to be the most celebrated asset of the LGBTQ community.
Martin Wong’s (黃馬鼎) Mi Vida Loca (我的瘋狂人生) is, to put it bluntly, a huge cock-and-balls painting within an ornate, grandiose frame. Towering over the viewer, the sculpture represents physical interactions and exchanges, the stars in the background implying the hopes, desires and dreams of an often isolated community.
Hsi Shih-Pin’s (席時斌) Buck of Freedom (自由之鹿) installation is a metallic creature of silver and gold that seems both grand and grotesque. At the exhibition opening he points out the blue pistol between the buck’s hind legs and says the merging of these different parts symbolizes the synthesis of our image and idea of identity that can appear violent yet fascinating.
SEEING THEIR VOICE
There’s more, howerver, to the exhibit than aesthetic penises, embodying an ongoing dialogue between the LGBTQ community and broader society.
Some of the artworks show pained past experiences, such as Xi Ya Die’s (西亞蝶) Chinese paper cut series that gives us a glimpse of his personal journey from internal shame to later discovery of his freedom and self-expression.
Su Hui-yu’s (蘇匯宇) somber and dreamlike video Nue Quan (虐犬) was inspired by a well-known murder case in Taipei 16 years ago, which the media relentlessly sensationalized due to the unusual circumstances surrounding the crime involving cybersex, homosexuality and S&M. The video invites viewers to ponder the case and reflect on their feelings about the sexual practices it depicts.
QUEER DREAMS
Some works drift towards the eccentric. Wang Haiyang’s (王海洋) Wall Dust (牆上的塵埃) is mesmerizing in its surreal fantastical animation, as the soft pastel animation plays out absurd and sexual scenes.
Observing the dreamlike paintings of the late Ku Fu-Sheng (顧福生) with men floating nude through their surroundings in Blue Sky (青空), Poppy Dream (罌粟夢) and Resting Place (休息站), I recall what it means to be naked in your dreams, whether that be a sense of insecurity or freedom. Our clothes identify us, but also conceal who we are. Perhaps there is some freedom in being laid bare, free of fabric constraints, allowing the world to witness the naked truth.
By contrast, one of his paintings, The Room at The Top of the Stairs (秘密房間), is hung within its own room that can only be viewed through a window, distant and out of reach. The two men in the painting stand facing away from a bed, undressed and unmoving. Perhaps they are uncertain of themselves — an awkward moment within a private space. The viewer serves as a kind of voyeur of this intimate situation.
PUBLIC REFLECTION
Walking into Hou Chun-ming’s (侯俊明) Man Hole (男洞) series, as part of his Body Image Series (身體圖), felt like entering a temple dedicated to 13 body images on two-sided paper hung in rows from the ceiling. The subjects are members of the LGBTQ community who the artist met online and agreed to draw a self-portrait on the white side of the paper hung from ceiling, while the artist gives his own representation of them on the other side. The result is an image of how the subjects perceive themselves and how they are perceived by the artist.
The exhibition offers a glimpse of the LGBTQ story — one that remains largely misunderstood by broader public. It may or may not diminish the public divide on the touchy subject of same-sex marriage and rights, but I can understand the community’s desire to be allowed the same privileges many take for granted, to love and be loved without boundaries and arbitrary limits.
The low voter turnout for the referendum on Aug. 23 shows that many Taiwanese are apathetic about nuclear energy, but there are long-term energy stakes involved that the public needs to grasp Taiwan faces an energy trilemma: soaring AI-driven demand, pressure to cut carbon and reliance on fragile fuel imports. But the nuclear referendum on Aug. 23 showed how little this registered with voters, many of whom neither see the long game nor grasp the stakes. Volunteer referendum worker Vivian Chen (陳薇安) put it bluntly: “I’ve seen many people asking what they’re voting for when they arrive to vote. They cast their vote without even doing any research.” Imagine Taiwanese voters invited to a poker table. The bet looked simple — yes or no — yet most never showed. More than two-thirds of those
In the run-up to the referendum on re-opening Pingtung County’s Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant last month, the media inundated us with explainers. A favorite factoid of the international media, endlessly recycled, was that Taiwan has no energy reserves for a blockade, thus necessitating re-opening the nuclear plants. As presented by the Chinese-language CommonWealth Magazine, it runs: “According to the US Department of Commerce International Trade Administration, 97.73 percent of Taiwan’s energy is imported, and estimates are that Taiwan has only 11 days of reserves available in the event of a blockade.” This factoid is not an outright lie — that
Cheng Ching-hsiang (鄭青祥) turned a small triangle of concrete jammed between two old shops into a cool little bar called 9dimension. In front of the shop, a steampunk-like structure was welded by himself to serve as a booth where he prepares cocktails. “Yancheng used to be just old people,” he says, “but now young people are coming and creating the New Yancheng.” Around the corner, Yu Hsiu-jao (饒毓琇), opened Tiny Cafe. True to its name, it is the size of a cupboard and serves cold-brewed coffee. “Small shops are so special and have personality,” she says, “people come to Yancheng to find such treasures.” She
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) attendance at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CPP) “Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War” parade in Beijing is infuriating, embarrassing and insulting to nearly everyone in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s friends and allies. She is also ripping off bandages and pouring salt into old wounds. In the process she managed to tie both the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into uncomfortable knots. The KMT continues to honor their heroic fighters, who defended China against the invading Japanese Empire, which inflicted unimaginable horrors on the
RSS